Centre for Policy on Ageing



Polypharmacy and hospitalization among older home care patients
Author(s)	Joseph H Flaherty, Horace M Perry III, Garrett S Lynchard
Journal title	Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 55A, no 10, October 2000
Pages	pp M554-M559
Keywords	Drugs ; Admission [hospitals] ; Living in the community ; Home nursing ; United States of America.
Annotation	One of the main aims of home care is to prevent hospitalisation. The study's objective was to examine the relation between medication use (number, type, and inappropriateness) and hospitalisation among 833 American over 65s discharged from home care. 644 (77.3%) returned to self-care or family care (S/F care), and 198 (22.7%) were hospitalised. Compared to the S/F care group, the hospitalised group was taking a higher number of medications. However, the hospitalised group had a lower percentage of patients taking inappropriate medications. Although it cannot be determined from this study whether a higher number of medications was an indicator of sicker patients at risk for hospitalisation, or whether a higher number of medications might have directly led to hospitalisation, polypharmacy should still be considered a marker for older home care patients for whom prevention of hospitalisation is the goal. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-001206202 A
Classmark	LLD: LD:QKH: K4: N4: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.